■ Flashback to 2006. A
defiant Peter Tatchell with the Rainbow flag in Red Square following the
firt attempt to stage a Gay Pride in Moscow.photo: UK Gay News

Commentary by Peter Tatchell in Moscow

In a shameless display of feeble deference to the Mayor
of Moscow, a court in the Russian capital today upheld Mayor Luzhkov’s ban
of the fifth attempted Moscow Gay Pride parade.

The judge acted in defiance of the Russian
constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to
protest.

This is a sad day for Russian democracy.
It is the latest of many suppressions
of civil liberties that happen in supposedly democratic Russia.
Many other protests are also denied
and repressed, not just gay ones.

Autocracy rules under President Medvedev.

The EU and western embassies are hypocrites.
They support Gay Pride events in
Poland and Latvia, but not in Russia. The
UK and US governments have not protested to the Russian authorities.
Their ambassadors to Russia have
offered no support to the Moscow Pride organisers.
They have ignored suggestions that
they host Gay Pride events in their embassy grounds and that they fly the
gay rainbow flag on Moscow Pride day, 29 May.

On the eve of the banned march, activists are arriving
in Moscow from all parts of Russia, to join the Saturday parade.
We are being billeted in secret
locations across the city.

To outwit the FSB security services, who have
previously tried to locate Gay Pride activists by tracing their mobile
phones, we have surrendered our mobiles and been issued with brand new
Russian sim cards.

I am holed up with a group of activists in an apartment
in Moscow.

We’ve been asked to remove all badges and ribbons that
might identify us as gay or as activists. All
the beds and sofas, and much of the floor space, is taken up with activists
form far and wide. Everyone is messing in to organize food and household
chores.

We are ready and determined to make a stand for gay
rights and the right to protests. The courage and resolve of the Russian
LGBT activists is really inspiring. We’ll take whatever the authorities, and
neoNazis, throw at us. We are hoping for no arrests and no assaults, but we
are ready for the worst.

SEE ALSO

Moscow Court Upholds Ban of Moscow Gay Pride by Mayor Luzhkov.
Organisers say the court decision will not change their plans for “event” at European Commission office. A judge at the Tverskoy District
Court in Moscow confirmed today the legality of the earlier ban of the Moscow Pride march by the Mayor of the Russian capital, Yuri Luzhkov.
(UK Gay News, May 28, 2010)

Blogging from Moscow Gay Pride.
UK Gay News
is in Moscow and blogging has started. Today the first of two legal
appeals on Pride bans ... and a press conference in the Holiday Inn. (UK Gay News, May 27, 2010)